Baby asprin

Question
My bunny is taking panacur and gluclosamine. We have been giving him baths lately since he has been going to the bathroom on himself.  On his sores we are putting bagbam, but today after the bath we noticed that one of his legs seems to be dragging and he doesnt use it alot.
I was wondering if its ok to give him a baby aspirin on top of the other medications hes taking, so we can relieve some inflamation? He is an E. coliculi bunny.

Answer
Hi Alanna,

I seriously recommend getting him back in to your regular, good rabbit vet.  He may have developed a secondary infection (common when immune system is down) that panacur isn't designed to deal with, and the infection may be putting pressure somewhere along his spinal cord and affecting his leg.  Either that or the infection is in his head and the pressure is impacting part of his brain that controls the use of that leg.

Often vets will prescribe both panacur (for E cuniculi) and baytril (antibiotic for infections).  

I would ask the vet about prescribing metacam to reduce pain the rabbit may be in because of infection swelling in the brain or back, and also because metacam is an anti-inflammatory, so it can help reduce swelling which would be desirable to reduce pressure either in his skull or his back - AND reduce pain at the same time.

Metacam is better than baby aspirin.  If you want to give him something you can acquire, go to a health store or supermarket that has a health section and pick up Arnica pills.  They are little sugar pills infused with Arnica Montana - they are natural pain relievers.  Give him 2-3 pills every 4-6 hours.  Really watch his diet and make sure he eats and drinks normally, I would also probably give him some acidophilus probiotics because you don't want the sugar in the sugar pills to allow bad bacteria in the gut to get out of control.

You really need to get back to the vet immediately, because you don't want the nerve to be permanently damaged.  He needs an anti-inflammatory to reduce pressure in the brain and spine to try to help take pressure of the leg nerve or the part of the brain that controls that leg.  He also probably has some kind of infection that the panacur won't treat (it's an antiviral, not antibiotic) so to be safe, he should have baytril or chloramphenicol, whatever the vet thinks will work best.

If you are not happy with your vet, to find a good rabbit vet near you, go here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.


Lee